Injustice 2 Includes Pay-For Currency For Cosmetic Items

Among the deluge of character reveals and story trailers, WB Games has announced the inclusion of a special in-game currency for Injustice 2, Source Crystals, which can only be obtained for real-world money and used to unlock cosmetic items and save players a bit of time grinding for gear.

The post announcing the currency stresses that none of the items players can buy with Source Crystals will affect gameplay. "We value our community and want to be clear – you cannot 'pay to win' with Injustice 2." You will only be able to purchase special skins and shaders.

These cosmetic items are different from the game's gear, which offers bonus stats and special moves to the fighter who wears them. These items are mostly for looks, and players will also be able to use Source Crystals to transmogrify their gear (as in Diablo III), to turn unappealing pieces with great stats into something more fashionable. Finally, Source Crystals will let players level up a character to level 20, but only after they've already reached that point with another.

WB did not announce a pricing structure for Source Crystals, saying it will be "communicated at a later date."

Our TakeThe cosmetic items don't seem that bad, though I'll probably be miffed about not being able to make my Black Canary or Blue Beetle look uniform without paying real cash. The instant level-up feature, however, is a bit more concerning; though it won't offer anything players others can't earn on their own, that still means players will have access to things before others. It's not directly an imbalanced system, but if the matchmaking is based on gear, it's going to mean we'll see a lot of max-level players who won't really know how to use their characters, making for less fun matches.